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SF Drabble #324 “Restraint of Trade”

I came to Boroku destitute, a transportee whose only alternative had been debtor’s prison. Fortunately, most come to Boruku — and worlds like it — in much the same condition. Now I own my own farm and a shop in town.

There’s law out here, but it’s civil law, not corporate: the corporations are banned from the colonies. They can’t own property or do business or pay payroll. Oh, they have agents here and there, but if they get caught doing business, they’re pig food. Mostly they just wait around for Reform to be repealed. Like that’ll ever happen; it’d be war.